University of Toronto rejects calls to dump holdings in fossil fuel industry

The University of Toronto has rejected recommendationsto sell off its fossil fuel investments, but says it will considerenvironmental, social and governance factors in making investmentdecisions.

The decision was immediately labelled cowardly by the group thathas been pushing the university to divest itself of stocks from companies that contribute to climate change.

"We have the support of hundreds of faculty, alumni andstudents," said Amanda Harvey-Sanchez of350Toronto.org."Forpresident Gertler to go against his own committee is shameful andappalling."

In a report released Wednesday, university president MericGertler said not investing in fossil fuel companies would havelimited impact because "such firms only account for one-quarter ofCanada's greenhouse gas emissions."

Gertler said it would be more effective for the institution towork with other organizations to increase transparency about carbonuse and encourage companies to emit less.

He said the university will come up with principles to "enableconsideration" of such factors in future investments, lookfor waysto use its shareholder influence to reduce climate risk and reportannually on those efforts.

It will also consider signing on to the Carbon Disclosure Projectas well as the Montreal Carbon Pledge, in whichinvestors disclosethe carbon footprint of their investments, he said.

A divestment report by a panel of university faculty memberspresented to Gertler last December went much further.

"The committee believes ... that targeted and principleddivestment from companies in the fossil fuels industry thatmeetcertain criteria ... should be an important part of the Universityof Toronto's response to the challenges of climate change," itsaid.

It suggested the university should drop investments in companiesthat knowingly distribute misinformation aboutclimate change or getmore than 10 per cent of their revenue from unconventional fossilfuels or"aggressive"extraction, such as open-pit oilsands mines,Arctic drilling or thermal coal.

Harvey-Sanchez, a student at the university, said Gertler'sresponse to the recommendations assumes "we canreward people fordoing a bad thing well.

"It's cowardly because he has the support of the entire U of Tcommunity for divestment. His decision is goingagainst all of thatsupport and it's a political move."

She said the issue isn't dead.

"We have a lot of options and we'll have to look at them allcarefully."

Universities across Canada have been weighing whether to dumptheir holdings in fossil fuel companies.Concordia University in Montreal became what is believed to bethe first Canadian university to adopt a partial divestment policyin December 2014, although that measure only applied to a $5-millionfund a fraction of the school's $130-million endowment.

The University of Calgary, McGill University in Montreal andDalhousie University in Halifax have all decided against divestment,as did the University of British Columbia, which instead promised tocreate a low-carbon investment fund.